Democrats blast Pennsylvania Senate GOP's wine and beer plan

HARRISBURG (AP) — Democrats on Tuesday blasted a day-old plan being circulated by Republican senators to liberalize Pennsylvania’s sale of alcoholic beverages and loosen state control by allowing thousands of private retailers to sell bottles of wine to go.

Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Allegheny, said the plan would sap $50 million from the state treasury at a time when the government’s finances are facing a $1 billion-plus deficit. He also warned that it would hurt small businesses to benefit big businesses.

“The latest Republican liquor plan will result in suffering for numerous entrepreneurs and their businesses,” Ferlo said in a statement.

Lobbyists for retail chains, transporters and distillers were in the Pennsylvania Capitol this week in hopes of influencing any eventual outcome. As of Tuesday, no vote was scheduled, and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scaranti, R-Jefferson, acknowledged the plan did not immediately have enough support to pass the chamber.

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The plan was circulated as a draft, not as legislation that had been introduced.

Senate Republicans, who control the chamber by a margin of 27-23, say they have crafted their plan to provide more consumer convenience. Wednesday is the last day for a vote on the plan before June 2, when lawmakers return to Harrisburg for five weeks of voting sessions leading up to the June 30 end of the fiscal year.

The Senate Republican plan would be a significant change from a bill that won House approval last year, but it is similar to a plan that stalled in the Senate last June.

The Senate plan would not shut down the state-controlled wine and liquor system, as Gov. Tom Corbett has sought. Instead, it would keep a state-controlled wholesale and retail system. While the plan would end the state’s control over the sale of wine, it would keep the state’s stores as the only retailer of hard liquor.

It also would not issue new retail liquor licenses, as Corbett had sought.

Under the plan, thousands of holders of existing liquor licenses that allow the sale of take-out beer, such as beer distributorships, bars and restaurants, could begin selling wine bottles to go. Meanwhile, the plan would relax restrictions on convenience stores, grocery stores, big-box stores and supermarkets that want to begin selling alcohol by buying an existing liquor license.

Other provisions in the plan would allow retail beer distributorships that sell by the case right now to sell by the six-pack. It would also allow casinos to serve alcohol until 4 a.m., instead of 2 a.m.

Retailers that serve wine and liquor by the glass would be able to get direct shipments from transporters, rather than picking up wine and liquor at a state-owned retail store, and they would get a bigger discount, 15 percent instead of 10 percent.

Proponents of the existing state-controlled system say its leverage helps produces profits for the state treasury. The House plan had set an aggressive schedule to sell off the state’s wholesale and retail wine and liquor business.